poeticsandaliens

[poeticsandaliens]

all of my favorite women live in the same place and that place is the fridge

[poeticsandaliens]

*RARE* John Denver & Johnny Cash - Take Me Home Country Roads

Found this while going through my granddad’s VHS tapes and couldn’t find it anywhere online, so here it is.

[poeticsandaliens]

"Please, save what remains of us."

With all kindness, put yourself in my family's place—what would you do?

Hello Dear,

I write to you overwhelmed with pain and helplessness 😔. My name is Abdelsalam, and I carry a burden too heavy to bear. My little daughter Amoona 👧 is living in unimaginable conditions. Every day is a battle for survival, where even her most basic rights—safety 🛡️, medicine 💊, and food 🍞—are distant dreams.

Amoona doesn't know the taste of childhood. She is growing up in a world that shows no mercy 💔, and as a father, I feel helpless watching her grow without being able to protect her. You have a voice that reaches millions 🎤, and your influence can be the difference between life and death.

I kindly ask, not just as a father but as a human 🙏, if you could consider offering some financial support, no matter how small, to help us provide the essentials Amoona needs. Your generosity could change our lives and bring hope back to my daughter’s future.

Additionally, I beg you to help spread my campaign. Let my voice reach the world 🌍, let people know what we are going through. All I ask is for a few words from you, but those words, alongside your support, could save Amoona and give her the life she deserves 💫.

Every word, every share, and every bit of help could be a lifeline ⛑️.

With the deepest gratitude,

Abdelsalam

Boosting this from my inbox to send more people to his profile

[poeticsandaliens]

I was gonna suggest that the man in fisherman's garb luring people absently to the lock museum could BE Martin...

Make the choice, the museum implores. You're both going to die, or you have to make the sacrifice.

A version of Martin that appears not unlike old Peter Lukas, just less talkative and more auietly solemn, as if he knows what will happen when they enter and maybe regrets it but doesn't try to stop them.

So maybe it's just me but I'm kind of getting the feeling that the situation w Jon is something like this

... Which makes the implications of him suddenly and without prompting pulling a case about inadvertently causing the death of a lover and dealing with the guilt thereafter, desperately searching for a way to fix the situation one way or another . deeply troubling to say the least

[poeticsandaliens]

vampirism poses the question "what if there was a fundamental, horrible, unending well of want in your soul that, if truly satisfied, would lead to great pain for all those you hold closest and, in turn, their absolute and total revilement of you?" and naturally as a person with no problems I don't relate to this in any way at all.

[poeticsandaliens]

Where are his eyes?

Exactly where they’ve always been, Martin. Watching over my Institute.

[poeticsandaliens]

I need a TMA Pacific Rim AU immediately. Like... I don't care if it's antithetical to the entire point of eldritch horror, I don't care what the ships are I don't care who's piloting a giant robot and who's drifting with a Kaiju I just would get a lot of joy out of this and would maybe sell my soul to see it.

[poeticsandaliens]

there isn't a barber in prison

[poeticsandaliens]

like I'm sorry is "I am the throat of delusion incarnate" NOT one of the most erotic lines to come out of the entire show?

[poeticsandaliens]

The TMA fans writing Michael Distortion smut are doing God's work. I love a good hot vampire, but if the monster is already that generically hot, there's no challenge. Let him build his own anatomy. MAKE me love him. Show me the tenderness beneath the skin of eldritch evil.

[poeticsandaliens]

one of the things that impresses me so much about TMA is that I'm content enough with how the story went down and enjoy the cast of characters and their dynamics such that I don't have a single "exclude" tag here on AO3. Like yeah there's stuff thematically I don't read but nothing I automatically filter out when I comb through the TMA tag. No characters or ships that I really avoid.

[poeticsandaliens]

As someone who's mostly creeped out by Jonah Magnus I also absolutely see the appeal of a character with the weird wealth of Mr. Darcy, the obsessive academic tendencies of Dracula, and the ability to know all of your desires without you ever having to figure out how to communicate them.

He gives off a very similar appeal to Mads Mikkelson's Hannibal I think... like a good jonelias fic has the energy of a really good hannigram fic.

[poeticsandaliens]

Just to add to this, TMA had to establish and unravel the mystery of the Fears and the (for lack of a better word) entire magic system. The audience comes into Protocol knowing these things already, and while we don't know everything that means the meta-narrative has a very different job and has to establish a very different type of mystery than TMA had on its hands.

(Fun fact: my cat is alao laying on me as I write this)

Strap in, fuckers. This is a long one.

I've seen a lot of discourse and discussion recently about why TMAGP isn't resonating with listeners as much as TMA did, with a lot of people pointing towards the infrequent structure of each episode and the lack of subtlety that TMA had once excelled in. And while both of these are true, I think the main culprit that has caused these problems for listeners is one thing: the pacing.

TMAGP is only going to be 60 (Edit: 90) episodes long, compared with TMA's absolute behemoth of 200. When I'd found out about this, I'd assumed that it meant TMAGP would have a much smaller story - not having to establish as much information as TMA did, and allowing the story to have lower stakes as a result. This certainly wasn't a bad thing, as many sequels that have tried to one-up their predecessors have gone disastrously wrong, but I knew that the structure would be different to TMA as a result.

However, from the 12 episodes that we've seen so far, it appears that TMAGP is going to have similar levels of stakes to TMA - not the same stakes, of course, but they'll likely be on close to equal footing. This means that TMAGP has to establish the same amount of information to listeners with significantly less time to do it in, and the pacing has to speed up to adhere to that. In the first 12 episodes of TMA, we had established one possible recurring statement character (Gerry), a disturbing worm woman (Prentiss), and the fact that Jon doesn't like his assistant and refuses to believe any of the statements. In the first 12 episodes of TMAGP, we've established every important protagonist and what they sound like, two recurring statement characters (Bonzo and Ink5oul) with one that has already physically appeared, much of Sam's backstory and his ties to the Magnus Institute and the fact that something is deeply wrong with their workplace. That is a big difference.

This difference in pacing is what I believe is turning listeners away from what they'd originally enjoyed about TMA, because there's no longer that warm, comforting atmosphere when you listen to it. Its sound isn't designed to come from a tape recorder and a tape recorder only anymore; it's no longer a sit-down and listen to the Archivist tell you spooky stories for 20 minutes anymore; and, like I mentioned earlier, the structure is no longer the same throughout each episode. The horror anthology aspect, whilst still being there, has now taken a back-burner to the metanarrative because so much has to be established in so little time. To many, that's a bad thing. They listened to the original because they liked the statements, and the little things connecting them hinted to a much larger story at play. When this story was revealed, we got to see Jonny Sims and his brilliant prose at its best, because there was no longer anything to hide and the statements were in their purest forms - no longer having to establish information to the audience, and simply basking in the fear.

I'm sure we'll get to see the same thing in TMAGP once the narrative reaches that point, but the current pacing has uprooted a lot of listeners' expectations for the show. I'm going to listen to the entire thing, personally; yeah, it's different, and it doesn't deliver the same vibes and comfort as TMA did, and I probably won't be able to fall asleep whilst relistening to the more obscure episodes like I could before, but in a frankly disturbing way, I'm still fascinated with what Jonny, Alex and the other writers have created. This type of horror is the only kind that I genuinely enjoy, and I'm excited to see what direction Protocol goes in.

Edit: I feel like I should clarify that I don't see this comparison as something that takes away from TMAGP. Alex has said that it's going to be different from the get-go, and I do think that comparing it to TMA is an exercise in futility to an extent. I just wanted to talk about the shows together because I feel like they complement one another, and the narrative beats that I've talked about are less to do with TMA on its own and more to do with general narrative structure. We have buildup, payoff and pacing no matter what show it is, because that's what makes a story. I think TMAGP could be taken a little bit like Deltarune in terms of its relation to the original source material: separate entities with some overlap in character and themes. At the end of the day, it's still early days for the show and this entire spiel could just end up gathering dust - I just think it's a cool thing to think about, and it gives me an excuse to infodump about how pacing can affect a narrative and the audience's response to it.

I wrote this while my cat was laying on me. Have a picture as a reward for reading this whole thing.

[poeticsandaliens]

hi I would like to posit a "TMA team works at Yosemite" headcanon. Hear me out: Yosemite has like a sixty year old big wall climbing culture. On a surface level avatars of the vast would have an absolute field day, and the ghosts of climbers who misplaced bolts or fucked up a knot or were unlucky enough to encounter a rogue Simon Fairchild would absolutely haunt Camp 4.

But consider the Web potential. Climbers are obsessed with knots. We're all constantly attaching ourselves to so many ropes we basically become puppets on a wall that size. How many times do you think someone has gotten supernaturally tangled in their gear rack and their rope while setting up a climb and wound up dangling, suspended from all limbs? Kevlar Rope spider people.

Consider the EYE potential. The constant vista chasing? The way that people hunger desperately for a view. The way that visitors meticulously must learn everything about weather conditions, wildlife, trail maps. Imagine the ranger station as the desk where people receive phone calls about all manner of emergencies. The first to hear when someone is struck by a freak bolt of lightning on Half Dome. The first to hear when a climber is found cocooned in ropes... and they're the ones who write every incident report.

You must known.... today I dreamt I was reading a super long tma fanfic you wrote where the team worked at a National Park entirely from Melanie's POV. Jon was his s3 self so he immediatly believed her when she told him about the supernatural and it focused on their dynamic. Woke up heartbroken it wasn't real </3

I don't know much about national parks but I have in the past spitballed about the archives crew as sleepaway camp counselors, which sorta hits a similar vibe. if we're doing s3 energy, jon is the kind of counselor who sees his campers maybe twice a week so they all think he's just bunking off and ignoring them meanwhile jon has been trapped up a ropes course platform for three days because the camp ghosts (manifestations of vast) tricked the people he was with into leaving without him. melanie finds him eventually and calls up "ghosts again?" to which he replies "no I just felt like feeling extreme vertigo for 72 hours and getting severely sunburnt--OH COURSE IT WAS THE FUCKING GHOSTS AGAIN"

[poeticsandaliens]

This probably has been said already but I want to emphasize that this doesn't just apply to characters who have been largely drawn in fanart as people of color. This should also apply to characters who the fandom largely draws as white.

And while it's important to consider the narrative subtext of different headcanons and how our own assumptions and experiences shape our headcanons I think one of the beautiful things about audio medium is the variety and diversity of interpretations that stem from a single cast of characters. Like, if film provides concrete representation and asks people to look and participate outside their own lives and bodies audio does something much like books do where it invites us to immersively build out this whole world and its occupants in our heads, which reveals complicated quirks, desires, anxieties, biases, emotional connections, favorite tropes, affections, etc in each of us.

Hey guys, we need to talk. Because a certain little something in TMAGP 8 is causing what is genuinely the most toxic part of the Magpod fandom at large to once again rear its ugly head. So let's talk about podcast character appearance head canons, shall we?

I'm tagging this with the Magnus Archives, TMA and Magpod tags because I am absolutely calling all of you out, but if you don't want spoilers for The Magnus Protocol episode 8 then stop reading right now.

.

.

. Okay, so, Gerry exists in the TMAGP universe. He's happy (or at least acts cheerful). And some people have headcanoned this to mean that he is no longer goth, or at the very least isn't dying his hair black with bad box color. And other people have decided to get seriously agro over this. I have literally seen with my very own eyeballs someone call "un-gothing" Gerry a "hate crime" and calling the person they were talking to "gothphobic."

Let me make this absolutely clear for all of you: podcasts are a purely audio medium and unless a physical trait of theirs is explicitely stated, everyone's headcanon for how a character appears is valid. Goth TMAGP Gerry is valid. But also

Rainbow Goth TMAGP Gerry is valid. Pastel Goth TMAGP Gerry is valid.

Not Goth At All TMAGP Gerry is valid.

Bald Gerry who has actually gotten his brain cancer diagnosed in time and is getting treated for it is valid. Somebody's headcanon of a character that has no canonical description to them, or whose headcanon matches the few crumbs of canonical description we have but otherwise doesn't look the way you imagine them to, is not going to take away from your own headcanon of what a character looks like. If someone imagining or drawing a character looking a different way from how you imagine them looking somehow takes away from your enjoyment of the fandom or otherwise makes you feel like you need to barge in and tell them that they're Wrong and need to conform to your headcanon or else, that is a reflection on you, not them.

And this problem way predates TMAGP, let alone TMAGP 8. The only description we have of John is that he is in his early 30's and has prematurely greying hair.

If someone thinks he looks like the pastiest motherfucker to ever dwell in a basement, an extra-in-the-Adam's Family or Tim Burtan protagonist of a man, let them.

What's that? You want to tell them that John is BROWN and if they don't headcanon him looking that way they're WRONG and RACIST? Back away from the keyboard and go outside.

(Ironically, as someone who started getting grey hairs in my hair in my 20's myself, I'm pretty sure everyone's headcanon of John, with tiny little whisps of grey in his hair, is wrong, because if he was so grey that people were surprised to learn he was "a child of the 90's," he was probably full on salt-and-pepper when he was in his 20's.)

The only description we have for Martin is that he (man who canonically has the self esteem of a used doormat) describes himself as "not the smallest guy", Not-Sasha called him "roomy", Melanie is skinner than him, and Jonny said he imagined him as a "bigger guy" who would beat Alex in a physical fight. If someone decides to take this information and conclude that it means he's tall, broad and has muscle, rather than that he's overweight, fucking let them. If your first instinct to this is to run to your keyboard and call them "fatphobic" or otherwise bash them for it, I once again urge you to back away from your keyboard and go outside.

Someone headcanons Basira not wearing a headscarf? We have exactly 0 canonical physical description of her and the people who headcanon her as having one are basing that purely off of her name alone. Fucking let them. Someone headcanons Melanie and/ or Georgie as a skin color you don't agree with or a hairstyle you don't like? Fucking let them. As long as someone's headcanon of a character's description doesn't contradict the few canonical descriptions we have of a character, why do you care? Them having a different headcanon from you doesn't take away your right to imagine the characters looking however you like, anymore than it should take away their right to do the same. Someone headcanoning John as white (or Black, or Asian, or Mixed, or whatever) isn't going to make all of the fanart of John as brown with long hair suddenly disappear, nor the fanfiction describing him as such (although I do often wonder if the opposite is not true; is the fact that John looks the same in so much of the fanart I see on here really because of fandom "consensus", or is it because people are absolutely awful to anyone who draws him Different?). Someone headcanoning Martin as not fat isn't going to make the mountains of fanart of him as a fluffy little marshmallow vanish into the void (although I do remember hearing about someone getting bullied off the internet for daring to draw Martin as not fat). And someone headcanoning Gerry in TMAGP as not being goth isn't going to take away your preciouse goth TMAGP Gerry headcanon. That should be part of the fun of it, shouldn't it? Seeing what different images people have conjured in their heads of these characters we only get to experience with our ears, and celebrating the differences as well as the similarities? Why are we bullying people into conforming to one appearance of a character when no actual canonical appearance of them exists?

[poeticsandaliens]

Moths and Flames or 70's Smokey Eyes

the outfits

look at this and tell me it's not them

[poeticsandaliens]

I am so here for the implications

Right so this episode wasn't tagged with cannibalism which means one of three things:

Bonzo is non-human

The groom is non-human

Both bonzo and the groom are separate non-human species